In the growing social media environment, accessed every day via online platforms, the ways in which audiences consume content is consistently changing. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are leading the race in terms of developing social media tactics to attract users, and those using social networks to create an online presence can take advantage of these methods in order to create a brand and attract specific demographics. However, there are some social media tactics that stand out more than others – innovating the way we use social media today.

The Power of the Tag

Tagging is one of the most popular tactics on social media. Everything from hashtags to location based tagging can allow a marketer to identify an audience and look for a trend in the content they consume in order to target them. Pinterest is a prime example of social network innovation through it’s use of tagging; their whole concept is based around using key words relating to the content of an article to group similar items and produce a variety of search results. Using Pinterest you can search for something extremely specific and still open thousands of results linking to articles containing your key word. But that’s not all. Pinterest have recently innovated further with the use of visual tagging; the user selects a section of an image found on Pinterest in order to display more results based on that section of the image. This is a newer and more complex form of tagging, whereas sites such as Twitter will use simple hashtags to group similar posts, images or threads, when in terms of business can categorise a market.

The Rise of Visual Content

The importance of visual content when marketing on social media is a concept only popularised in recent years. Statistically, 10% of information given to a person will be retained after three days when that information is received without any visual content, however 65% will be retained after three days if the information is presented using a visual image. Social networking sites have encouraged the use of this visual content through viral videos or memes shared from person to person. When marketing a product it is far more likely to be successful when the audience can see an image of the product or watch it in a short engaging video clip. It is good for marketers to engage with what their audience are sharing on Facebook and Twitter in order to reflect what their audience find more visually engaging. Social networking platform Snapchat have taken a huge advantage from the rise in popularity of visual content as their concept is entirely focused on sending pictures and videos to friends. Snapchat’s ‘filters’ are another way they have made their network more visually engaging through the use of animated images to increase interactivity when sending videos and photos on Snapchat. This rise in the use of visual content is soon to be followed by other forms of visual interaction used by marketers such as Drone footage, 360 Images and Virtual Reality, all of which we offer here at UNBXD.

Customer Communication

The world we live in offers a variety of instantaneous methods of communication which has in turn lead us to expect quick responses on everything from the devices we use to the service we receive. Some businesses have developed more distant forms of communication with their audiences through the use of mailing lists, whereas others will directly communicate with their consumer base, for example by replying to or Retweeting their Tweets on Twitter. This is perceived as a much more personal and instant form of communication. The level of communication used is subject to the brand and how it wishes to be perceived by its audience, however we believe that any brand can benefit itselfby using the power of social media communication.

Real-Time Content

Aside to instant communication, a big advantage of social networking is real-time content. Twitter feeds update by the second giving audiences access to a variety of content from minute to minute. For a marketer this means that their content needs to engage an audience instantly in order to attract their attention amongst the constant feed of competitors and create good brand awareness.  A recent example of this would be Individuals such as celebrities using a social media tactic called live stream where they stream a live video and transmit it across the globe via their social network. Their followers are then notified and can watch and comment on the live stream. This is a convenient tactic for individuals trying to create a personal brand or to endorse products or events as it is a form of direct communication with the consumer in real time.

At UNBXD we believe that for businesses in any industry, the key to success is knowing your audience. Social media makes this possible, and easier to accomplish than ever before. The world of Social Media and it’s platforms are forever growing and something you should take advantage of for your brand or business.

If you would like to discuss your social media needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.